Emi
by tfobmv18
Summary: This occurs right after the end of season 2. What if a rogue firebender wanted to teach Aang firebending? How would they find him and get him to trust them?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Avatar: The Last Airbender characters. I only made up Thuy and Emi.

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Scene: At night, near a fire nation campsite.

Emi gives instructions to a group of women. "Make as little noise as possible and whatever you do don't let Ty Lee hit you. Now let's go."

They follow her over to a large metal box. Emi bends the metal box open to reveal Iroh inside. She motions for him to come out.

"I'm here to help you," She whispers.

Iroh cautiously exits the box wondering "_Who is she and why does she want to help me_," and at the same time knowing that going with her and the others was better than staying where he was at.

"_I'm sure whatever they'll do to me won't be half as bad as what my brother will do to me_," Iroh acknowledges to himself. Just as this thought fully enters his head a knife comes whirling at his head. It is quickly knocked off course by a rock and goes straight into a tree. Everyone looks to see who threw it.

In the distance, Mai is seen preparing to throw another knife. Mai urges the camp to awaken by saying that the traitor is escaping.

Ty Lee comes flying out of nowhere and lands beside Iroh. Iroh prepares to fight her when suddenly she falls to the ground standing behind her perfectly calm, as if nothing is happening, is Emi. Iroh stares at her in disbelief. She ignores his looks and commands the woman next to her to remember her assignment. The woman quickly obeys her by grabbing Iroh and dragging him quickly off into the woods.

Emi turns to confront Mai and the rest of the camp, who are currently fighting with Emi's followers. Emi starts to approach Mai, who starts throwing knives at her. She lazily blocks the attacks by moving pieces of rocks in front of her. Mai starts to wonder who is this woman when she notices that she can no longer see her. It is as if the woman disappeared in the blink of an eye. In the next second Mai is rendered motionless.

Emi is now behind her and lets out a high pitched whistle. Her followers quickly start to disappear into the woods and out of sight. Emi moves quickly and calmly towards the woods.

As she nears the edge a bolt of fire barely misses her. She turns around to see, who shot off the blast, only to discover that it is Zuko. A look of betrayal comes to her face as a single tear slides down her cheek. Emi turns back toward the woods and disappears within them.

Please comment. I started writing this after season 2.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Again I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just appreciate its greatness.

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Scene: Emi's underground campsite. (seen from Iroh's point of view, _thoughts italicized_)

Iroh requests to meet the leader of the women. A strange woman, who doesn't speak, takes him to an empty chamber and leaves him there with no way out. She locks him in by closing the door, just a hole in the wall, behind her.

"_What? Where is their leader? Was I just rescued to become someone else's prisoner?_" wonders Iroh.

He looks around the chamber. "_It's huge, but there aren't a lot of things in here._" He sees a rolled up sleeping bag in the far right side of chamber and table over it. On the table, he finds a carved, hand-painted box and some scrolls. "_This is very odd that these things are the only things in here. Why would someone put these things in a prisoner's chamber?_"

He looks at the scrolls and the box again. "_I wonder what do those scrolls say and also what's in the box?_" He looks at them again and starts to pick up one of the scrolls when the door, hole in the wall, opens up.

The person, who walks in, is no other then the woman, who calmly stopped Ty Lee from recapturing him. She walks over to him and says, "I hope you haven't been waiting long? How may I help you?"

"You can help me by taking me to your leader. I want to know what he wants from me and why I've been made a prisoner." Iroh exclaims.

The woman starts laughing. "_Why is she laughing? What's so funny?_"

She soon stops. "I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help myself. I'm better now though and so I'll answers your questions. First I'm the leader, so your request has already been granted. Also you aren't a prisoner you are our guest. I'm sorry for the confusion. Now to answer the question of what I want from you. It's simple really. I want you to introduce me to the avatar."

"Why do you want to meet the avatar? And why ask me?" asks Iroh.

"You know the avatar personally and I can teach him something of value."

"I've only spoken to him once so how do I know him personally and he already knows how to earthbend. So …" says Iroh.

"That's nice, but I would still like to meet him."

"I don't understand."

"You will." The woman bends a chair from the wall and sits down. "Would you like a seat?" the woman says as she bends another chair from the wall and gestures for him to sit down. Iroh sits down.

"Now I believe that introductions are in order before we continue on…" says the woman.

"My name is Mushi and …" says Iroh.

"Don't lie to me. I know who you really are. You are General Iroh, Dragon of the West. Actually I know a lot about you so lying to me is absolutely pointless," the woman strongly says and then in a softer voice says, "Now my name is Emi and I do believe that your chamber will be done in a minute."

"_This woman is very curious. How does she know me and if this isn't my chamber than what is this place?_" Just as thought came to his head the strange woman reenters the room.

"It appears that your chamber is finished. Thuy will take you to your chamber so that you may rest," says Emi. Thuy guides him swiftly out of the chamber before he can ask anymore questions.

Iroh asks Thuy to tell him what she knows about why he's here. He also asks her about what she thinks of Emi, her leader. She says nothing as she guides him down the hall to his chamber. After making a lot of confusing twists and turns down the hallway, they finally arrive in front of an opening in the wall that is covered by a drape. Thuy leads him into the room and quickly leaves him there without saying a word.

Iroh looks around this new room. "_It's a lot smaller, but there are more things in this room then there were in the last room_." Iroh looks around the room to see a bed on one side of the room and a table opposite it. On the table is a fresh pot of hot water, and next to that pot is a single cup and two bags, one containing jasmine tea and the other containing ginseng tea, and a reusable metal tea bag.

Iroh stares at the bags of tea in disbelief and wonders, "_I thought she was exaggerating when she knew a lot about me. Wait a minute maybe this is just a coincidence. Yeah that's it. They just happen to only have these types of tea and out of courtesy's sake gave me some. Yes, that makes a lot more sense._"

Iroh puts some of the ginseng tea into the metal tea bag and puts it into the pot. After a minute or two, he pours himself a cup of tea. As he's pouring the cup of tea, he starts to realize just how tired he is.

"_I think I'll just go to sleep after this cup of tea._" After he finishes his cup of tea, he goes to the bed and lies down and just before he falls asleep he starts to wonder, "_What is really going on here and will Emi ever tell me why she wants to meet the avatar. Emi, why does that name sound strangely familiar_?"

Please comment.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender

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Scene: Emi's chamber

Emi watches Iroh leave. "_That was harder than I thought it would be._" Emi breathes a sigh of relief.

She walks over to the table and opens the box. Inside are pieces of broken gold metal. She gently caresses them and starts to remember memories of love. She also starts to remember the rescue of Iroh and tears appear in her eyes as she remembers the fire blast. She slowly closes the box and sighs.

She then turns to the scrolls. She starts to open some of them. The first is a map of the area, which she lays across the floor. The second is a scroll stolen from a fire nation soldier on its way to an important general. The third is a checklist of sorts; it is written in a code that only Emi and Thuy know. The others she leaves untouched for the moment. She starts examining the documents before her.

She has no reason to fear interruption, because only Thuy dares to come to this chamber without permission. The others respect her, but due to her mysterious past also tend to fear her. All they know is that all of her family is gone because of the fire nation and nothing more. Thuy is the only exception to this. She knows a lot of about Emi and Emi knows a lot about her. Thuy is also respected and feared for the same reasons as Emi. The only reason the other women stay with them is because they have never failed a mission yet. Nor have they ever allowed anyone of the women to be captured or killed no matter what the cost has been to themselves. Thuy and Emi are also fair and have never assigned someone a duty that they couldn't complete.

About ten minutes later, Thuy enters the chamber. "Is he comfortable?" asks Emi, who doesn't look up from the scroll.

"I assume so. I didn't actually ask," Thuy says in an irritable tone.

Emi chuckles as she looks up from the scrolls. "No, I suppose you wouldn't ask. Now would you."

"So is he going to introduce you to the avatar?"

"I don't know yet, but I think that he will."

"Well that's good at least then the avatar will be able to learn firebending and be able to navigate himself around the palace like he's lived there his whole life."

"I know and what's even better no one will even see it coming because they think that we're both dead. Ok then what's next on the list?"

Thuy picks up the list, "It appears to be: Find the avatar and train him in the art of firebending."

"I suppose that will have to wait until morning. Have you heard any sightings of him?"

"No, but rumor has it that there will be an invasion of both earth and water benders during a solar eclipse."

"I love the fact that servants go unnoticed in the palace. It makes our job so much simpler."

"True, but I think that we should change informants the one we have is starting to become noticed."

"Of course, it's about that time again. Make sure that she gets out safely and we'll send some one else in about a week or two so that no one, meaning Azula, gets suspicious. The rumors that we have are good enough for now. No one at the palace will know where he is anyway, because they think that he's dead."

"Yes, but I heard of a way that we can find the avatar."

"How?" Emi said excitedly.

"I hear that Zuko is going to hire a hitman, so we can follow him to the avatar."

"That sounds like a perfect idea we'll just need to be careful." The two women continued to formulate the plan for hours. Until Thuy reminded Emi that sleep was also essential to the success of the plan. So Emi and Thuy went to their quarters and went to sleep.


End file.
